VLC for Windows 8 Developer Badmouths Windows RT

Developing apps for Windows RT is not fun, he says

The VLC for Windows 8 Kickstarter project has finally reached its goal, so developers can now start work on porting the multimedia player to Microsoft’s new platform.

VideoLAN developers have already confirmed that a Windows RT version is also in the works, but it appears that some members of the team find such a project a waste of time.

Microsoft-News.com writes that Jean-Baptiste Kempf, one of the developers involved in the project, badmouthed the Windows RT platform, emphasizing that creating an app for the tablet version of Windows 8 is worth the effort only if developers get paid.

“As you might have guessed, one of the reasons of the Kickstarter is also that we don’t want to spend too much of our free time to support this [expletive] platform. Free time is for fun stuff, and Windows RT is probably not fun. But if paid, we can use this occasion to improve VLC even further. Kickstarter would help not waste our free time on WinRT. If the Kickstarter fails, we probably will drop it, indeed,” he said in a comment on his website.

Kempf, however, modified his comment as more and more people supported the Kickstarter project and donated money to port the multimedia player to Windows 8 and Windows RT.

He now calls Windows RT “a difficult platform,” explaining that porting VLC to this tablet operating system is not fun because it involves a lot of work.

The VLC Kickstarter fundraiser has officially ended, so the first version of the VLC for Windows 8 project is expected to be released in approximately three months.

Dedicated versions of the app aimed at the Windows RT and the Windows Phone platforms will also see daylight this year, but the team would initially focus on making the software available on the new Windows 8 OS.